Kind Of
by Krysnel Nicavis
Summary: There were a lot of things that Ben didn't remember, thanks to a certain Angelic intervention. But there were other things he just couldn't forget.


**Title:** Kind Of  
 **Fandom:** Supernatural  
 **Characters:** Ben Braeden, Claire Novak, Alex Jones, Jody Mills, Donna Hanscum  
 **Prompt:** 31 Day Place Challenge – Day 23: An Amusement Park  
 **Word Count:** 1,551  
 **Rating:** K+  
 **Genre:** Friendship, Family  
 **Summary:** There were a lot of things that Ben didn't remember, thanks to a certain Angelic intervention. But there were other things he just couldn't forget.  
 **Author's Notes:** Takes place in late May 2017; Episode tag: 6.21 "Let It Bleed"  
 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing …

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Going to an amusement park for your eighteenth birthday was kind of fun. Going to an amusement park for your eighteenth birthday _alone_ was less so. It was actually the weekend after Ben Braeden's afore mentioned birthday, and he had convinced his mother to allow him to take a small trip to Kansas City, about a ten hour drive away, on his own. He didn't have many friends. In fact, he wasn't exactly close to the few he did have, at least not enough to actually hang out with outside of school. So he made the trip alone to the Worlds of Fun amusement park, located on the Missouri side of Kansas City, to spend the day wandering around.

The truth was, he had a few foggy memories from going there for his eleventh birthday. They were good memories. Faded, but there. They were of his father. His mother didn't like talking about him. She didn't remember much about him, only that she'd thought she had loved him once but had ultimately decided that it wasn't the relationship she wanted and broke it off. She was convinced that Ben couldn't remember him. After all, the man wasn't around when Ben was growing up and had only tried to be part of his life for a short time before he left and their relationship fell to pieces. But Ben _did_ remember. He remembered a lot. He just couldn't remember what he looked like.

Mom had to work that day (his eleventh birthday) and his dad had taken him all the way to Kansas City, just the two of them. They had spent the entire day at the park and his dad had even sprung for the Fast Lane Plus wristbands so they didn't have to wait in any of the regular lines. He'd convinced his dad to go on all five roller coasters but the man refused to go on the RipCord, Detonator, SteelHawk or Skyliner. He said they all reminded him too much of being in an airplane.

They'd enjoyed the bumper cars tremendously, Ben just barely meeting the height restriction. His dad had driven circles around him and was a general terror to everyone else on the Autobahn. They'd even taken a turn on the Grand Carrousel, having fun even though they'd both felt like idiots. Ben had absolutely refused to go on any of the Planet Snoopy rides, and his father had wholeheartedly agreed. After eating at the Paisano's Pizzeria, they'd spent part of the early afternoon touring the Dinosaurs Alive portion of the park. Even his dad was fascinated by it. The rest of the day was spent in the waterpark portion, Oceans of Fun.

He remembered falling asleep in his father's car on the way back to Michigan. It wasn't his usual truck, but the classic car he usually kept covered in the garage. A black, 1967 Chevy Impala. The car was a beast and his dad kept it in pristine condition… there was something extra special about it that Ben couldn't recall… something about the trunk…

Ben was on his way to find the pizzeria when he bumped shoulders with someone.

"Watch where you're going, you One Direction reject," a female voice snarked.

"I-I'm sorry," Ben replied, thrown off kilter at the remark. He turned around to find a blonde girl around his age dressed in a black leather jacket with her hair braided on one side like Meryl Streep in Ricky and the Flash. She was standing next to a brunette (also around the same age) that looked more like a 90s alternative rock artist. Ricki Rendazzo and Alanis Morissette immediately began bickering.

"Give him a break," Alanis intoned. "It was an accident."

Ricki scoffed. "Assbutt should watch where he's going, he's not the only one in this park." Ben frowned in confusion. Assbutt?

Alanis rolled her eyes. "You're such a loser."

"I'm not the one who spends all day cloistered away in the library when she's not smoking pot with all the other rejects, bitch."

If Alanis had quills, she'd be all prickly right about now. "At least I'm not the one with Daddy issues a mile long and an unhealthy obsession with hunting, jerk."

Ben could practically see Ricki's hackles raise. "At leas-"

"Um, c-can I go now? Or am I gonna need to find some mud for you to wrestle in?" They rounded on him as though they'd forgotten he was even there. "O-or not, I mean it's, it's not like, y'know, you need to be _mud_ wrestling. I'm- I'm sure you could easily bitchslap each other right here a-and, and…" Ben was slowly backing away, hand up in an appeasing manner as his mouth ran awkwardly away from him, as per friggin' usual.

Ricki glared at him. "I'm about to bitchslap you right here and now, Beiber."

Ben looked affronted. "Bite me, J Law."

Both Ricki and Alanis looked mildly impressed. "Where were you headed off to in such a hurry?" Alanis asked.

"Uh, the pizzeria over there," Ben pointed to the building a little ways down the street.

"Cool, I'm hungry," she took off towards the building without a backwards glance at either of the other two. Ben and Ricki followed.

"So what's your name, Bublé?" Ricki asked as they sat at a table with their pizzas and coke.

"I'm Ben. Braeden."

"Claire Novak," she inclined her head in greeting before taking a large bite of her slice.

"I'm Alex Jones," Alanis offered, tossing a mildly irritated look at Ricki/Claire.

"So what you doing at Worlds of Fun by your lonesome, Ben Braeden?" Claire asked around the slightly chewed pizza.

"Uh… nothing really," Ben looked down at his own slice. "It's kind of stupid."

"What is?" Alex asked, taking a drink of her coke.

"Well… I uh, I just wanted to spend time at the place my dad took me to for my birthday seven years ago." He cleared his throat. "I mean, before he kind of bailed."

"I know how that it," Claire stated in an off-hand way, taking another large bite.

"Oh look, you're bonding already," Alex smirked.

"Eat me, Daria," Claire shot back. "Oh wait, never mind. You just might."

"Stuff you cakehole, Kesha."

"There you girls are," a voice interrupted the girls' second bicker-fest. "We've been looking all over for you two." The three teens turned to see a woman with short, slightly greying brown hair, and a blonde with long blond hair pulled back in a low ponytail. "Who's your friend?" she asked.

"Ben Braeden," Alex asked, taking a smaller bite of her own pizza.

"Nice to meet'cha Ben," the older blonde greeted. "I'm Donna Hanscum, and this here's Jody Mills."

"Hello."

"Let's go get some pizza and join the kiddos, hey Jodes?"

"Great idea, we'll be right back kids," Jody said before shooting what Ben recognized as the "Mom Look" at the girls. "And please, don't run off again," she requested in an exasperated tone. "We're supposed to be having fun together today." The women walked away to order their food.

Ben opened his mouth to ask a question before Alex answered. "They're kind of our moms. We live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with Jody. She's the sheriff. And she's kind of in a long distance relationship with Donna who's the sheriff in Stillwater, Minnesota."

Before Ben could react Claire cut in. "And I kind of got a pair of dads in Kansas, who we're on our way to visit after this wayward side trip of misguided intentions. Is any of that going to be a problem?" She asked with a measured amount of hostility in her voice.

"N-no," Ben leaned back in his chair. "Not at all."

They stared at each other until Jody and Donna returned. All Claire said in response was a clipped "good" before returning to her pizza.

* * *

Ben was breathing hard, his eyes wide as he took in the gruesome scene in front of him. "You okay, Braeden?" Claire asked as she approached where he'd landed on his ass after that… _thing_ had tried to take a chunk out of him. A large, bloody machete was held loosely in her hand.

"Wh-what… _What!?_ "

"Did you get any in your mouth?" She asked as she took in the spatter on his face.

"What?"

"Blood," Claire demanded shortly, her posture tense. "Did you get any blood in your mouth?"

"N-no! I had my arm up."

"Okay, good," she relaxed. "Otherwise I'd've had to tie you up and drag your ass to Kansas with us."

"It's on the other side of town, so you wouldn't've had to drag me far."

Claire rolled her eyes. The guy wasn't too bad, she kind of admitted to herself. "Yeah, whatever. Lebanon is, like four hours away. And I'm not sure my stepdad would be too thrilled at us taking a newborn vamp into his Batcave."

"What?" He looked up at her in confusion. Nothing made any sense. She rolled her eyes again before reaching down and helping him to his feet. She looked at him, considering something before sighing. "Okay, look. There's a lot of things you don't know about the world…"

And that was how Ben Braeden received his (re-)introduction into the world of the supernatural… and kind of made a couple friends.

-30-

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 **Footnotes:**

(1) I don't know how the Worlds of Fun amusement park was set up in 2010, so I am basing it off of the website as it appears on February 2017.

(2) Bublé – reference to Canadian singer/songwriter Michael Bublé.

 **A/N:** Ben is 18, Claire is 19(ish), and I put Alex at around 18.

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 _Completed: February 08, 2017_


End file.
